Yogini PatelAnthro 150 DiscussionImportance of WritingThe earliest language written in Mesopotamia was “Sumerian”. Sumerian was retained for administration, religious, literary and scientific purposes. Early in Mesopotamian history cuneiform script was invented. Cuneiform literally means wedged shaped due to the triangular top of the stylus for writing on clay. The standardized form of each cuneiform sign appears to have been developed from pictures. The earliest texts (7 archaic tablets) come from the E Templededicated to the goddess Inanna at Uruk, from a building labeled as Temple C by its excavators. The early logographicsystem of cuneiform script took many years to master. Thus, only a limited number of individuals were hired as scribesto be trained in its use. It was not until the widespread use of a syllabicscript was adopted under Sargon's rulethat significant portions of Mesopotamian

This is the end of the preview.
Sign up
to
access the rest of the document.

Unformatted text preview: population became literate. Massive archives of texts were recovered from the archaeological contexts of Old Babylonian scribal schools, through which literacy was disseminated. This relates to the emergence of a state because since they started to keep track in WRITING of what their society did it allowed for them to trade, govern and teach the inhabitants of Mesopotamia. We know that it is a state because of the written records the archaeologists discovered. We learned about their religion and daily lives through their writing. Mesopotamian religion was the first to be recorded. Mesopotamians believed that the world was a flat disc surrounded by a huge, holed space, and above that, heaven . They also believed that water was everywhere, the top, bottom and sides, and that the universe was born from this enormous sea....
View
Full Document